The benefits of the division of labor are widely acknowledged. Even the opponent of the market economy recognizes the fact that the coordination of productive efforts yields material benefits for all parties involved. But only the economists are intellectually consistent enough to draw all the necessary political implications from this insight. In
The practical offshoot of the Austrian theory of money is that the production of money should best be left to the free market. Government interventionism does not improve monetary exchanges; it merely enriches a select few at the expense of all other money users. And on the aesthetic side, the disaster is of course complete: rather than deal with
The notion that inflation is harmful is a staple of economic science. But most textbooks underrate the extent of the harm, because they define inflation much too narrowly as a lasting decrease of the purchasing power of money (PPM), and also because they pay scant attention to the concrete forms of inflation. To appreciate the disruptive nature of
Claude Frédéric Bastiat (1801 — 1850) is one of the greatest economists ever. His role as organizer of the French, and inspiration of the nineteenth- century continental European free-trade movement is not controversial, and all historians recognize him as a great pamphleteer — some even calling him “the most brilliant economic journalist who ever
Some of the most significant contributions made by Austrian economists relate to the field of money and banking, among which we can now rank Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles , by Jesús Huerta de Soto, professor of economics at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid. In his first great treatise, the Theory of Money and Credit , Ludwig von
[This article is also available for podcast or download , read by Jeff Riggenbach.] It has been said that the time of universal scholars ended long ago. There can be no more brilliant minds that develop vast systems of thought and produce top quality work across a range of disciplines. For such thinkers, we are told, there is neither supply nor
“If ever it could be said that one man stood against the ideological tide of an era, that was von Mises. But whether his efforts have turned that tide is a question to be resolved in the future by those who understand his theories and share his love of liberty.” — Howard S. Katz, Rip-Off Resistance Today is the one hundred twenty fifth anniversary
One of the great Austrian economists of our time is about to retire from the University of Paris, after thirty-eight years of service. Pascal Salin is the author of eleven books, dozens of scholarly papers, and hundreds of articles in which he explains and develops economic science and courageously advocates individual liberty. He is the academic
The theory of the division of labor is one of the cornerstones of economics. It is the very foundation of the scientific analysis of society and the market. According to this theory, cooperation among any number of persons is more productive than the individual efforts of the same persons in isolation from one another. It follows that all
[Here is the preface to Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism (Mises Institute, 2007).] In the summer of 1940, with Hitler’s troops moving through France to encircle Switzerland, Ludwig von Mises sat beside his wife Margit on a bus filled with Jews fleeing Europe. To avoid capture, the bus driver took back roads through the French countryside,
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.